Bootstrapping a Million Dollar Company with Zero Investment: Learn from Om Thoke, Founder of Webfosys, DOTS, Glowworms & a Beloved Startup Mentor
Om Thoke
People often misunderstand the sheer fact that building the next billion dollar business isn’t about raising a few million dollars of seed capital.
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If you’ve heard of the term “bootstrapping” and you’ve been following the leaders in blogging & digital marketing space, the chances are high that you’ve heard of the likes of Om Thoke, Harsh Agarwal, Amit, Neil Patel etc.
Om Thoke, (legal name: Sarweshwar Thoke) dons many hats - a blogger, digital marketer, ecom expert, startup mentor and angel investor - he has inspired millions of aspiring Indian startup founders, bloggers, and digital marketers since 2006.
He Didn’t Inherit a Fortune
Om didn’t inherit a fortune, and rather had just Rs 10,000 in his bank account, when his father passed away during 3rd year of his engineering journey. Looking for ways to make some money, he started working as a freelance content writer, and made his first $108 from Google Adsense in 2006, and slowly built his empire.
Om bootstrapped Webfosys officially on March 27, 2009, and always bootstrapped all his ventures - 6 of them so far, and he’s bootstrapping 7th one in 2021, and the beauty about bootstrapping is that you go the lean route, and don’t worry about chasing investors and raising money.
Bootstrapping vs Fundraising
When asked why he never considered fundraising, Om said “To be honest, I never explored the fundraising route until last year, and I might end up raising funds for my next venture though it might not be a public announcement due to internal reasons, I always prefer bootstrapping a venture. And, the funny thing is I’ve even invested in a few startups over last 10 years, but never raised a dime for my ventures”
First of all, when your entire business depends upon the approval of an external investor, you’re no longer in the driver’s seat, and your journey inherently gets controlled by angel/seed investors, and then the future round of investments.
Not Every Idea Can be Bootstrapped
Now some of the ideas require heavy financial investments, and you simply can’t bootstrap them, but 95% of the ideas can be bootstrapped, and it’s just that people are too lazy to slog, and generate that initial cash flow to fund their business until it becomes self sustainable.
If you look at the biggest billion dollar companies - Paypal, AirBnb, Uber - did they all raise millions of dollars? Well, eventually they did, but initially they operated on a lean model and MVP until they were sure that it was scalable. And, once you’ve a scalable business model, it’s just a matter of time and finding the right mentor/investor who believes in your idea, and has got deep pockets to back you up!
And, I know it sounds pretty cliche, but when you start chasing money and investors, you never end up getting them on their side, pretty much the same way you never manage to impress the hottest girl in your class. And, when you start befriending one of the “average” friends of that same girl, without showing any interest in her, the tables seem to turn!
Om is also an angel investor through Glowworms Ventures, which has invested into nobel initiatives like Global Child Prodigy Awards, the World’s First Child Prodigy Initiative, and he’s also also part of Lead Angels, one of India’s leading angel investment firms that holds potential unicorns like ShopKirana in its portfolio.
During the pandemic, Om launched Bloggers World University & Ecom World University live workshops to handhold aspiring bloggers, and ecom marketers get started and generate their first online income. He’s loved by thousands of startup founders because he’s quite approachable on his Instagram & Facebook page, and talks to everyone in a friendly manner without any fake aura around him.
In 2021, he aims to transform 100,000+ lives through the bigger platform STM Doosra, the Indian Avatar of World’s Biggest Affiliate Marketing Forum STM, which is getting launched in India during the first quarter of 2021, alongside mentoring startups.
The key takeaway is if someone can do it seven times, you can certainly bootstrap a company successfully once in your lifetime - so, stop crying about lack of funding, and bootstrap your idea with the right mindset today!
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